Poetry: 5 Tips for Writing Poems

Ballads — a Traditional Form of Poetry

The ballad is a traditional form of poetry that conveys romantic or even lurid stories. Ballads are narrative poems with roots in the thirteenth century. They are still are being written today, especially in the form of popular songs.

Ballads take many forms. A popular one is the four-line stanza in which the first and third lines are written in iambic tetrameter (four iambs) and the second and fourth are written in iambic trimeter (three iambs), with a rhyme scheme of ABXB (the third line, X, need not rhyme or may rhyme with A).

Here's what two such stanzas may sound like:

The winter moon had tipped and spilledIts shadows on the lawnWhen Farmer Owen woke to findHis only daughter gone;

She'd taken all the clothes she hadAgainst the biting cold,And in a note to him she wrote,"I've taken all your gold."

Stick to this stanza type and write a ghost story, mystery, suspense tale, news event, or heroic story (stories of the Knights of the Round Table and Robin Hood were written in this form). Make the story and the language as modern as you can. You'll see that this sturdy little form is excellent for carrying a tale.